(WWJD Disclaimer: Before any of y'all go getting your knickers in a twist here, let's all keep in mind that I'm NOT denigrating Christianity. In point of fact, I respect and honor Christianity. It's CHRISTIANS that I have a problem with...those who call themselves "Christians" but in actuality know as much about the teachings of Jesus Christ as they do about running the West Coast offense. Christianity is not about power, control, and reaction...though you'd never know it from listening to most- not all- Christians.)
(thanks to Rick Campbell for this one....)
Christians should "occupy" all nations. President-elect Barack Obama's pro-choice stance on abortion is the same sort of "fascist, supremacist attitude exhibited by Mussolini and Hitler.".... Public education is tyrannical, unconstitutional and the Satan-following Left's "subtly deceptive tool of perversion." And parents who surrender their children to government-run schools are "throwing them into the enemy's flames even as the children of Israel threw their children to Moloch.".... These aren't the beliefs of just any right-wing Christian zealot -- no offense to the right wing or to Christians in general -- but one who was elected by Texas voters to help shape the curriculum for all of Texas' 4.5 million public schoolchildren.
The stunning ignorance, arrogance, and truly frightening nature of this viewpoint is bad enough, but the fact that they emanate from an elected public official (whose bailiwick is public education) in Texas makes them even more disturbing. When you note that Cynthia Dunbar is a member of the Texas Board of Religious Indoctrination Edumication...well, WTF??? And it's not as if Dunbar has had to camouflage her ignorance, intolerance, and zealotry. No, she was disturbingly open about being a complete religious nutjob during the campaign, and she won her position handily...which should raise some real concerns about those Texans who voted for her. These people are content with an education system that would provide little more than religious indoctrination? Does the separation of Church and State mean nothing to them? And these people are allowed to raise children? Do we not care about the welfare and future of the children of Texas?
I never cease to be amazed at the willingness of some Christian zealots in Texas to force their "Bible curriculum" upon the students of Texas. Never mind that not all Texans are Christians. Apparently, the thought process is that Texas is majority Christian, ergo, all Texas students should be force-fed Christian doctrine on the public dime. Silly me; I'd always assumed that the purpose of education was to prepare our children for the future, to equip them to be successful, contributing members of society. Sadly, if edumication in Texas was left to idjits like Dunbar, it would be about indoctrinating children with the same zealous Right-wing, Fundamentalist doctrine that has led this nation to the clusterf--k it's in today.
I have seen the future...and it seems to involve goose-stepping.
State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, offers these perspectives -- and other keen observations that would be labeled dangerous religious extremism in other countries -- in her recent book, One Nation Under God: How the Left Is Trying to Erase What Made Us Great.
But Dunbar's writings shouldn't shock voters of the 16-county area who elected her. After all, the author last week told my colleague, Gary Scharrer, of the Chronicle's Austin bureau, that she made her positions known during her campaign in 2006 and proudly carried every county in District 10.
That's you, Austin County. And you, Bastrop, Burleson, Colorado, DeWitt, Fayette, Gonzales, Lavaca, Lee, Milam, Waller, Washington, Williamson, and parts of Brazoria, Fort Bend, and yes, even Travis.
But for some reason, this forthright candidate, who -- considering her views on public education, must have openly campaigned as an accomplice to tyranny -- wasn't entirely comfortable with the views in her book being aired in the media.
When Scharrer questioned Dunbar about portions of the book circulated in a press release, she maintained her writings were intended only as an educational tool to the body of Christ, and not for the general public.
She phrases it a bit differently in the book, writing that it's "not intended for the faint-at-heart or the apathetic, the complacent or the deceived."
In other words: Anyone who doesn't agree.
Before any of y'all get too far down the road thinking that Dunbar's views should be defended, let's keep in mind that she doesn't think that Barack Obama is an American citizen. I will defend her right to hold her views (however seemingly clueless and idiotic) to the end of time. This is her right in our democracy. What she doesn't have, however, is the right to active militate for forcing those views upon the children of Texas. It's called the Board of EDUCATION, y'all...NOT the Board of Christian Indoctrination.
I do find it interesting that Dunbar is somewhat uncomfortable with a public airing and discussion of her views. You'd think that if you're trying to win people over to your point of view, you'd want to avail yourself of any opportunity to discuss and market your beliefs. This, however, is a perfect illustrations of what makes Christian bigots like Dunbar so dangerous. They're far more comfortable operating in the dark, where they can work steadily toward weaving their zealotry into the fabric of public life and thought without attracting attention. Shine a light on their ignorance and arrogance and, well, they scatter like roaches.
Cynthia Dunbar are as much about the teachings of Jesus Christ as I am about chairing Sarah Palin's 2012 Presidential campaign. Ultimately, it's really not about the teachings of Jesus Christ, of which they seem to understand surprisingly little. No, it's really about power and control. It's about turning children into reliably Right-wing religious automatons who will do as their told and unquestioningly respect authority, even when that authority is ultimately only concerned with it's own self-aggrandizement and the aggregation of ever more political power.
As you might imagine, people like Dunbar are a big reason I don't miss Texas. Cynthia Dunbar is merely one visible tip of a very large iceberg. The problem is that a lot of Texans agree with Dunbar. An even bigger problem is that a lot of these folks are raising children and filling their offspiring with their ignorance, prejudice, and bigotry. Whether these zealots care to admit this or not, the reality doesn't change: America is NOT a Christian nation. It's a secular nation with a majority Christian population. Most Americans who call themselves Christians recognize the reality that their faith tradition is not alone in this country. They understand that they may be a majority, but they have no right to force their beliefs down the throats of Americans who think differently.
The truly sad aspect of the beliefs of people like Cynthia Dunbar is that they seem to have forgotten, if they were ever even taught, that America was founded by people fleeing religious persecution. Yes, it's true; those who don't know history really are condemned to repeat it.
JESUS, SAVE ME FROM YOUR FOLLOWERS....
